perilous rescue
Deborah Bird Rose
‘Perilous Rescue’ is a new project that continues my research into understandings of connectivity that are both other-wise and Earth-wise. A major segment of the project focuses on three main aspects of the imperilled lives of flying foxes, Pteropus species, in Australia in relation to plants as well as to people and other mammals. I am fascinated by their role as keystone species in relation to other endangered species and ecosystems, by the way they are vilified and persecuted by orchardists, and by the issues they pose for biosecurity. These three aspects are deeply connected, and together they allow me to explore entangled histories and futures of flying foxes, trees, rainforests, and a range of diseases that can spread to mammals including humans. The research builds on much that I have learnt from Indigenous people in Australia. The next phase is to carry out in-depth interviews with people who are involved in flying fox rescue and care.
A flying fox in the Sydney Botanic Gardens
Image by Daniel Vianna Mr.Rocks – from Wikimedia under GNU license Date 2007-05-26
‘Perilous Rescue’ is a new project that continues my research into understandings of connectivity that are both other-wise and Earth-wise. A major segment of the project focuses on three main aspects of the imperilled lives of flying foxes, Pteropus species, in Australia in relation to plants as well as to people and other mammals. I am fascinated by their role as keystone species in relation to other endangered species and ecosystems, by the way they are vilified and persecuted by orchardists, and by the issues they pose for biosecurity. These three aspects are deeply connected, and together they allow me to explore entangled histories and futures of flying foxes, trees, rainforests, and a range of diseases that can spread to mammals including humans. The research builds on much that I have learnt from Indigenous people in Australia. The next phase is to carry out in-depth interviews with people who are involved in flying fox rescue and care.
- 'Flying Foxes: Kin, Keystone, Kontaminant’ (fortcoming) in D. Rose and T. van Dooren (eds.) Unloved Others: Death of the Disregarded in a Time of Extinctions.
A flying fox in the Sydney Botanic Gardens
Image by Daniel Vianna Mr.Rocks – from Wikimedia under GNU license Date 2007-05-26
